Published: 28 November 2013

Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa said foreign direct investment was critical in funding the Zimbabwe Agenda on Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation blueprint.

Government, he said, was also looking at other ways of raising the funds needed for the blueprint.

Chinamasa said the current tax base is too narrow to fund the government blue-print.

"Currently our tax base is narrow; therefore I am considering the securitisation of our minerals because we noticed that there are foreign business people who come and buy claims.

They carry out geological surveys with the intention to sell those claims on the stock exchanges overseas. It is my hope that we get such claims so that we leverage our resources. There are several banks that have already indicated that they are willing to give us the money to carry out the geological surveys, so the ball is in our court," he said.

Chinamasa said Government was also looking at mobilising funds from Zimbabweans living abroad.

"I am also looking at the Diaspora and see what value we can reap from our population that is outside. One of the considerations we have is that we float Diaspora bonds," he said.
- herald

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